E 




DISCOURSE 



THE NATIONAL FAST 



(MAY 14, 1841,) 



OBSERVED ON OCCASION OF THE 



DEATH OF PRESIDENT HARRISON. 



BY CHARLES W. UPHAM, 

Pastor of Ihe First Church in Salem, Mass. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 



iJ s 1 n : 

DUTTON AND WENTWORTH, PRINTERS 



1841. 





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DISCOURSE 



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THE NATIONAL FAST 



(MAY 14, 184 1,) 



OBSERVED ON OCCASION OF THE 



DEATH OF PRESIDENT HARRISON 



BY CHARLES \V. UPHAM, 

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Pastor of the First Church in Salem, Mass. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 






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33 s 1 n : 

DUTTON AND WENTWORTH, PRINTERS. 



1841. 



DISCOURSE. 



Text — Prov. x. 7. 
"THE MEMORV OF THE JUST IS BLESSED." 

The occasion which has brought us together, that of a Na- 
tional Fast, on the death of a President of the United States, 
is so novel, and all its preceding and attending circumstances 
so peculiar, that it requires much consideration and reflection 
to select and arrange the topics that ought to occupy our atten- 
tion and engage our meditations. It will not be in my power 
to treat the death of President Harrison as a judgment sent 
upon this people, which is the point of view in which the pe- 
culiar and special nature of a Fast might lead us to consider the 
event. I have no belief that any particular occurrences can 
with propriety be singled out in this way, and regarded as 
judgments, as expressive of the displeasure, as the frowns, of 
God. All events occurring under His hand are ordered in 
mercy. All such events in their final issues are mercies. 

The death of the President was designed to lead to some 
good results, and it is for us to prepare ourselves so to contem- 
plate it as to draw forth and experience those good results. It 
will be my endeavor, therefore, to apply the occasion to a con- 
sideration of the death of our late President, as an event in 
God's providence, and of his life and memory, as designed and 
adapted to promote such results as may be regarded as the ends 
aimed at by the providence of God. I shall treat the topic, in 
other words, in reference to its moral influence and its moral 
value. 



4 

The death of the Chief Magistrate of the United States, while 
in office, is an event of the most impressive and solemn natnre ; 
one of which, through the signal mercy of Him who ruleth 
among the nations and whose benignant care has ever been 
especially exercised over this nation, our history has afforded 
us no precedent. The character and services of the man him- 
self, the incidents connected with his exaltation to his high 
office and his recent public entrance upon it, and the circum- 
stances of his last sickness, death, and burial, all have con- 
spired to increase, deepen and extend the sensibility of the 
people on the occasion. 

The public feeling has been expressed in every variety of 
form, and by being thus freely, spontaneously and universally 
expressed, has become in a measure relieved and satisfied. By 
the most solemn and august funereal pageants in the larger cities 
of the Union; by official notices of the event in all legislative, 
municipal and organized associations ; by slow-moving and 
long-drawn processions ; by badges of mourning worn on the 
persons or displayed from the houses of the people ; by the 
tolling of bells, the firing of minute-guns, and the wailing and 
melancholy notes of music ; by the deep and dull iut( nations 
of muffied drums ; by the flag embroidered in black floating at 
half-mast ; by the columns of the newspaper press and almost 
every other object dressed in the habiliments of woe ; by these 
infinitely diversified manifestations of heartfelt sorrow pervad- 
ing the entire population, filling all eyes with tears and shroud- 
ing all countenances in gloom ; — by these manifold testimonials 
and expressions, suggested by the sincere, unaffected, and well- 
merited sentiments of an affectionate and lamenting people, the 
heart of the nation has, as it were, flowed freely out. We feel 
that all has been said and done which love and duty require; 
and as a mourning family, after having witnessed the deposit 
of the honored remains of a venerable parent in the place ap- 
pointed for all, return slowly to their desolated home, and pre- 
fer to be left in silence and tranquillity to meditate upon their 
bereavement, so do the people of America feel, — the funeral, 
the eulogy, the rites of religion, and the tributes of public grat- 
itude and grief having been fully rendered. — that they should 



now, as it were, be dismissed to their several private homes and 
separate retirements, to meditate in stillness and solitude over 
the providence that has befallen them. 

But the new President of the United States, who, in the 
manner provided by the Constitution, has succeeded to the 
office, among other indications of his being properly impressed 
by the solemnity of the occasion, and of the station to which 
he has thus been suddenly and unexpectedly advanced by the 
combined voices of the people and of God, has reminded us 
that one thing more remains to be done. He has issued his 
proclamation, recommending to the whole nation to assemble 
this day, in their several places of worship, and to conclude 
their solemn observances and proceedings, in reference to the 
occasion, by united and humble prayer. 

At first it may have appeared to some, particularly in those 
of the States M^hose usual annual fast occurred immediately 
subsequent to the death of the President and was made to ap- 
ply to the event, that the repetition of so similar a commemo- 
rative observance would be superfluous. Upon fuller reflec- 
tion, however, it probably will be the general sentiment that 
the measure recommended, and which we are now observing, 
is the most becoming and excellent simultaneous termination 
of the expressions and proceedings of an united, wide-spread. 
Christian nation, on an occasion so impressive, affecting, sol- 
emn and momentous as that which has disappointed the hopes 
and afllicted the hearts of this people. 

Although the political institutions of this country are framed 
upon the theory of perfect practical simplicity, and an entire 
avoidance of all show, and insignia, and dramatic effect, still 
the workings of the popular principle, in its free and unre- 
strained vigor, have led at times to the exhibition of the most 
striking and magnificent ceremonials which the world ever 
witnessed, — far grander and sublimer than the power, wealth, 
and ingenuity of the mightiest arbitrary empires can contrive 
and present. The unanimous expression of the whole nation's 
grief and solemnized sensibility at the death of Washington, 
was one of these occasions. The triumphal progress of General 
La Fayette, some few years since, through and around the 



whole country, the glorious scene contmuing without interrup- 
tion to display itself for more than a year, as the nation's guest 
advanced from city to city and from village to village, from the 
moment of his landing to that of his departure from our shores, 
was an exhibition of popular feeling, on a greater scale than 
can be witnessed in any other country, or under any other in- 
stitutions. Its record will constitute one of the most interesting 
and instructive pages of our peculiar history. So also was 
there a remarkable and wonderful display of popular sentiment 
and energy in the entire progress of the great political struggle 
which was brought to its close by the elections of the last fall. 
The true and full narrative of this mighty popular movement 
will constitute another of the richest chapters of our history. 
But the most beautiful of all has been the grand national fu- 
neral of President Harrison ; its first, central scene, the city of 
Washington; and the lamentations of the people rising in 
widening circles, as the intelligence spread from that point in 
all directions, until the remotest extremities of this vast conti- 
nent had contributed their expressions of solemn and sincere 
affliction to complete the affecting and sublime tribute. The 
historian of the country will present all the multiform scenes 
of this universal popular movement in one picture, in which 
the whole people of the United States will be seen, bearing the 
mortal remains of their chosen, venerated, and beloved Chief 
Magistrate to the grave ; and the picture will be rendered mor- 
ally as well as poetically perfect, by the services in which, in 
their several temples of worship, they are at this moment en- 
gaged, in pursuance of the recommendation of the present 
executive head of the nation. By united prayer, rising, at the 
same moment, from every altar in the land, the august ceremo- 
nial is surely most appropriately brought to a close. 

Let us then regard our present service in this light. It is 
the conclusion of one long-continued, wide-spread national 
funeral. All the other acts have passed. We have witnessed 
them as they have severally been borne before us in the ac- 
counts we have successively received from the more distant 
points of the confederacy. The last procession has dispersed ; 
the last distant dirge now dies away upon the ear. The air 



no longer reverberates to tolling bell or minute-gun. All that 
remains to be done we have met here to do, and when that is 
finished the scene will close. 

May this last act be fitly and effectually performed by the 
whole American people. Let them, while now assembled in 
this and all their other houses of worship, with simultaneous 
prayer, rising from all hearts, invoke from heaven the perma- 
nent spiritual and religious influences and impressions the death 
of President Harrison was intended and adapted to produce; 
and draw from it those lessons of wisdom, and encouragements 
to virtue, it so affcctingly and strikingly affords. Henceforth 
the event, with all its accompanying and resulting circum- 
stances, retires into the past, becomes historical, and we can 
already begin to contemplate it, as it will appear to the thought- 
ful student of our annals in all coming ages. 

In the first place, then, let us consider it as an event in our 
history, as an incident in the story of the fortunes of our coun- 
try. As such it is of great value. The eight preceding Presi- 
dents of the United States lived through their entire terms ; 
five of those terms of eight years, and three of four years each. 
The office had been filled for fifty-two ^^ears, — nearly the pe- 
riod of two generations of men, — and by citizens, for the most 
part, in advanced life, and death had never assailed its incum- 
bent. The consequence was, that the idea of the perpetual 
imminency of death, of the greatest moral value to those who 
appreciate it, had, as it were, ceased to be associated with the 
office in the minds of the people, and perhaps, to some extent; 
of the incumbent for the time being. So little was it considered, 
that but slight interest became attached to the office of Vice- 
President. A singular proof of this has just been given. 
When, on the death of the President, the Vice-President suc- 
ceeded to the office, there seemed to be an almost universal 
ignorance among the people in reference to his principles, char- 
acter and history. We have reason to be thankful that, 
through the goodness of Providence, not any careful discern- 
ment or intelligent scrutiny on the part of the people, he is 
(and here of course I speak without any reference to his rela- 
tions to parties,) just such a man, so far as yet appears, as it is 
most desirable to have placed over us. 



8 

But the idea of mortality is now at last fastened to the office 
of President of the United States, as it is to every other human 
station and condition ; and it is to be hoped that it will have its 
just weight and influence over all, both the people in their elec- 
tions and the incumbents in their administrations. Especially 
is it to be hoped, that every future President may constantly act 
and live under a solemn sense of this truth. The first care of 
President Harrison, after entering upon his official term, was to 
procure a Bible, to be a permanent appendage of the executive 
mansion, and which he caused to be inscribed with these words : 
" The President of the United States, from the People of the 
United States." The written word of God, in this wise and 
beautiful conception, was thus to be held up and spread open 
by the people, before the eyes of their chosen Chief Magistrate, 
for his daily guidance and instruction. The word of God has 
now entered that mansion in another form. It has been uttered, 
to its present and future inmates, in louder and more impressive 
tones than can be described on the written page. The halls 
and chambers of that palace are echoing the solemn annuncia- 
tion of man's mortality. Death has asserted his dominion over 
that, the loftiest summit of human ambition and glory, as well 
as over all humbler scenes where he has ever been known to 
hold inexorable sway. 

We may, perhaps, reasonably indulge the hope, that a serious 
and lasting impression will be made upon the hearts of our 
Presidents by this event, and that the executive mansion will 
ever be sanctified and solemnized, not only by the prayers of 
its late lamented occupant, but by his death. Under the influ- 
ence of tliis feeling, let us hope that his successors will daily 
seek wisdom from that sacred volume, which, as with his dying 
hand, he has transmitted to them, and that, when they think, 
as often they will, of the shortness of the period he was per- 
mitted to dwell there, and of their own liability to be likewise 
summoned at any moment to the bar of Heaven, may they be 
led, as conscientiously and devoutly as he did, to discharge 
their trusts ! 

It is in this way that we are authorized to hope and to pray 
that the death of President Harrison may become an invaluable 



blessing by the impression it will be likely to make upon the 
minds and hearts of our rulers : upon the people in general, es- 
pecially upon politicians and aspirants for public honors and lof- 
ty station, it will probably have an equally favorable effect. — 
Political ambition, pervading large classes, and mfecting the en- 
tire system of life and society, is often spoken of as one of the 
greatest evils and dangers of our peculiar institutions. Perhaps, 
in the minds of many, the perusal of that page of our history 
which relates the short period of General Harrison's enjoyment 
of an office, won after such a struggle, and entered upon in such 
triumph, will assuage and reduce the passion of poUtical ambi- 
tion more effectually than could be done in any other way. As 
they muse upon the funeral procession, succeeding, after so brief 
an interval, the triumphal march of the inauguration, and wind- 
ing its slow and mournful Avay from the palace to the grave, 
they will feel, as nothing else perhaps could make them feel, the 
vanity and frailty of all earthly success, honor and glory. 

The circumstances attending the death of President Harrison 
have supplied all that was needed to render his life and exam- 
ple of incalculable value to the people of this country. His 
death while in office has given the greatest possible diffusion to 
his fame, and brought out, and made permanent for ever, the 
lustre of his virtues and the influence of his example. The 
most precious part of the wealth of any nation is the character 
of its great men. Among the noblest families of Rome, who 
traced their lineage through a long line of eminent and illustri- 
ous citizens, the portions of their inherited wealth they most 
prized were the images of their departed ancestors, which were 
preserved with sacred care, and so arranged that the members 
of the family might see them as they passed to and fro in their 
ordinary avocations, and by seeing them have their minds re- 
freshed by the recollection of their virtues, and stimulated with 
generous emulation by the contemplation of their services and 
honors. The intelligent and reflecting American, in estimating 
the wealth, and power, and blessings, we have inherited from 
our predecessors, will, in like manner, consider the transmitted 
fame of the great and good as constituting the most valuable part 
of our possessions and privileges. Our country is rich in the 
2 



10 

examples of distinguished men whose names shine in the fir- 
mament of her history, hghting us on in the paths of patriotism 
and virtue. Another pure and bright star, shedding a most mild 
and benignant radiance, has now ascended into our heavens. 

In the life and character of President Harrison, our history has 
realized an accession of infinite worth and interest. It will be 
well for us to attempt to attain to some clearness and distinct- 
ness of ideas, in reference to the moral and political value of 
his memory. 

The fame of Washington is unrivalled and superlative ; in 
its nature as well as degree superior to that of any other indiv- 
idual. The Father of our country is the most glorious name in 
history. But he was, as it were, greater than humanity. By 
his grandeur of mien, his dignity of deportment, the solemn and 
sublime stedfastness, sobriety, and serenity of his spirit ; by his 
unfailing wisdom and spotless virtue ; by his mysterious suprem- 
acy over the power of fortune, so that adversity and disaster 
themselves contributed to his glory as much and as surely as 
prosperity and victory ; by the unapproached and unapproach- 
able magnitude of his services and splendor of his renown, he 
seems to be lifted above the reach, and borne beyond the circle, 
of the sympathies of ordinary humanity. It is perhaps a fanci- 
ful, you may call it a superstitious, feeling, but I confess it is 
one which grows in my mind the more I study his life and char- 
acter, in connexion with his times, and the purposes of Provi- 
dence he was called to accomplish, that he was, as it were, a 
superior being, something more than man, raised up to perform 
a work to which the infirmities and frailties of common human- 
ity were incompetent. At any rate, there is nothing like him 
in all history. He is a larger specimen of our nature than can 
elsewhere be found, and I recognize, in his wonderful combina- 
tion of qualities, if not something supernatural, surely the most 
signal interposition of the visible hand of God. The prepara- 
tion and supply of such a character, at that time, in that crisis, 
for that work, if not a miracle, is the brightest display of a spe- 
cial Providence which the history of nations presents. Because 
he was, or rather is felt to have been, thus superior to us by na- 
ture ; because he seems thus to stand alone and above the level 



11 

of the rest of mankind, his example fails, in some points of 
view, to produce its whole effect upon those who contemplate it. 
In order to supply this defect, it seems to have been the design 
of Providence to raise up such a character as that of President 
Harrison, and by the incidents of his life and death to render it 
exceedingly interesting and effective in its operation upon the 
American people : for he presents, in a character which we feel 
to belong to our common nature, and to be in sympathy with 
the feelings, and affections, and infirmities of ordinary humanity, 
many of those very qualities which contributed to the value and 
glory of the character of Washington. 

In this view of the subject, I am willing to consider President 
Harrison as a person of not more than ordinary talents. I 
know him to have been a well-read, enlightened, cultivated 
gentleman, with sufficient ability to have done honor to any 
station. But it is true, that he did not inspire a beholder with 
the awe, and wonder, and admiration, with which Washington 
impressed all who met him. With Harrison, although ac- 
quaintance soon ripened into confidence, and friendship, and 
love, every one felt that he was with an equal. If there are 
any, then, who feel inclined to say that he was no more than a 
common, ordinary man, of no remarkable properties of great- 
ness, let them have their way. Supposing it to have been so, 
we reach the highest view in which his example can be con- 
templated. We see some of the noblest traits of the great 
Washington shining with perhaps a more attractive and almost 
equally brilliant, although not so dazzling and supernatural a 
lustre, in the character of one no greater by nature than our- 
selves, and conferring upon an ordinary man a glory, such as 
does not grow dim in comparison with the glory of any other 
name than that of Washington himself We see an illustration 
of the most perfect integrity, honesty, and disinterestedness. 

Of these virtues his whole life is crowded with evidences. 
But the most decisive and honorable proof was his poverty. 
He had for years been invested with unlimited power over a 
region, on whose northern limits corn will not grow, and which 
stretches to the south until it reaches the cotton tree and even 
the sugar cane. By peaceful conferences with aboriginal tribes, 



12 

and in consequence of the long-tried and well-established con- 
fidence reposed by them in his justice and uprightness, he 
obtained for his country a larger accession of territory than 
was ever permanently won by the sword of any single con- 
queror. Of all these millions of acres, not one was converted 
to his own use ; — of the millions upon millions of dollars for 
which they were sold, not one passed into his own cotfers. 
Conducting as he did the first settlement of the vast and now 
populous West; governing it for years Avith a commission 
which conferred upon him all but absolute power ; command- 
ing successive armies, and conducting innumerable negotiations 
and treaties with remote and unprotected backwoodsmen, and 
ignorant and blinded savages, not a single act of injustice, or 
harshness, or arbitrary selfishness was ever laid to his charge. 
He was absolutely and completely disinterested ; he literally 
forgot himself altogether in the discharge of any public trust ; 
and when his services had all been performed, he withdrew to 
his humble cabin, in the bosom of the forest, with no other 
means of subsistence than his own farm could supply to his 
own labor. 

He led the gallant troops of Kentucky and Indiana to the 
banks of the Tippecanoe, and there, in an awful and sangui- 
nary conflict, — a battle which in the elements of terrific horror 
has never been surpassed, commencing with a sudden and 
stealthy midnight assault by the enemy, and crowded with the 
fierce, desperate and deadly personal struggles of Indian war- 
fare, — he crushed the power of an aboriginal confederacy 
which threatened the existence of the Western States, and, in 
connexion with the war with England then impending-, the 
existence' of the Union itself His personal exposure in this 
battle was so great, as to render his preservation truly wonder- 
ful. He was on horseback, mingling, from the beginning to 
the end, in the thickest of the fight. In the latter part of the 
battle, particularly after tlie day had dawned, he became the 
mark of innumerable Indian rifles. The rim of his hat was 
perforated by a bullet, but his person was shielded as by a di- 
vine guardian. For his services, in this campaign, he neither 
asked nor received any compensation. 



13 

He not only presented no claims upon the government, for 
services like this, but he scrupulously abstained through his 
whole life from converting public trusts into the means of pri- 
vate emolument. For a long series of years he lived in quiet 
and contented retirement, drawing his income from the produce 
of his farm and the emoluments of a local office connected with 
the courts in the county in which he resided. It was an inter- 
esting spectacle, while his pure and honorable name was the 
watchword of a vast and victorious political party, and was 
echoing and re-echoing over hill and valley in song and accla- 
mation, inscribed on banners floating in every breeze, and made 
the rallying cry of millions of his countrymen, to behold him 
in his quiet and sequestered retreat. His dwelling was a plain 
farm-house, without any of the refinements of modern luxury. 
A visiter describes the antique side-board : the Lord's prayer, 
in its time-worn frame, hanging upon the walls of the room; 
the plain and home-wrought carpet, and the spacious fire-place, 
tended by himself, and kindled in the morning always by his 
own hand. Thus was he living, contented though poor, when 
the voice of a great nation called him to the highest station in 
the gift of any people. Surely there is nothing more interesting 
in all history ; and the humble condition in which his last 
years were passed, is a most beautiful demonstration of that 
incorruptible integrity which had kept his hands pure and 
clean, while so many millions of the public treasure flowed 
through them. His honesty and disinterestedness were equal 
to those of Washington himself; and what an encouragement, 
what a stimulating persuasion it is, to the scrupulous practice 
of these virtues, to see the matchless lustre they ha\^e shed for- 
ever around both their names ! 

In his devoted patriotism, also, President Harrison emulated 
the virtue and the glory of Washington. There is a striking 
similarity in the course on which their love of country impelled 
them, at about the same age, in the early period of their lives. 
They both, when not yet twenty years old, voluntarily aban- 
doned all the comforts, luxuries, and enjoyments belonging to 
the equally high circles in which their respective families 
moved, and, turning their backs upon the older settlements. 



14 

plunged into the wilderness, and, carrying their lives in their 
hands, rushed to the defence of the frontiers from a victorious, 
advancing, and merciless foe. As Washington encountered un- 
harmed Ihm ii gl i the storm of fire and the iron sleet of the field of 
Monongahela, acting as aid to Braddock, so Harrison, attached 
in the same capacity to the heroic Wayne, rode through showers 
of rifle-balls, bearing, as it were, a charmed life, at the battle of 
Maumee. As Washington retired, at successive intervals of 
release from public duty, to his farm at Mount Vernon, so also 
did Harrison pass an equally long life in a similar alternation. 
Their country was always near and dear to their hearts. 
They gave it their lives, and in death it was not forgotten. 
How sublimely eloquent was that incident in the dying hour of 
Harrison, which proved that his country filled his departing 
soul ! After he had appeared for some time to be insensible 
and speechless, his spirit came again and he revived, and 
gathering up his remaining strength, he uttered, in a strong, clear 
voice, a solemn injunction of duty to his successors, charging 
them to make the Constitution of the country the constant object 
of their studies and guide of their administration. He seems to 
have come back from the world of spirits to inculcate, in those 
few and most felicitous words, the whole creed and code of 
patriotism and statesmanship.^ It was indeed a most admira- 
ble and beautiful termination of a life which had been devoted 
to the service of his country, and entitles him to share with 
Washington himself the highest praise of patriotism. 

Then, besides these traits of integrity, disinterestedness, and 
pure devotion to his country, in which he reflected, in undi- 
minished brightness, the glory which had before shone from 
the nobler dimensions of Washington's superior nature, there 
are other excellencies in the character of Harrison, brought 
conspicuously before the minds of the people, in consequence 
of the interest created respecting him by his recent trium- 
phant elevation to power and his death in ofiice, which cannot 
be contemplated without benefit by our countrymen. 

^" I wish you to understand the true prinripli's of tlie gnvornnient, and to carry thenj 
out. I ask lor notliinq: more." 



15 

It must soften and expand the hearts of the American peo- 
ple to think of the tender benevolence and noble generosity of 
his nature ; and we may reasonably indulge the hope that every 
aspiring mind will seek to cultivate such dispositions, when it 
sees them surrounding his name with an attractiveness which 
secured the popular favor that carried him to the loftiest attain- 
ment of human ambition. 

A noble, peculiar, and mvariable benevolence, was perhaps 
the most prominent trait in his character ; he was the sure and 
stedfast friend of tlie poor and humble ; he was faithful and 
just and merciful to the Indian in his darkness, and, as I 
personally know, his heart was prompt to hear the cry, and his 
hand open to relieve the distress, of the slave in his chains. It 
was indeed a rewarding Providence which led him to bring the 
actions of his benevolent and magnanimous life to a close by 
services of kindness rendered to unfortunate and lowly worth. 
Little did he think, when he was writing the letter in behalf 
of the poor shipwrecked and storm-beaten sailor, that it was 
his last letter; still less did he imagine that he was recording 
his own glory. But that letter will live forever, and confer 
upon its author a precious immortality in the perpetual memo- 
ries of all good men ; the testimony of the Scriptures does not 
permit us to doubt that, while he wrote it, it was, word by 
word, entered upon the Book of Life, by the recording angel of 
God, and that it helped to open wider the gates of heaven to 
welcome in his ascending spirit.* 

* General Harrison was appointed, by President John Quincy Adams, Minister Plenipo- 
tentiary lo the Court of Bolivar. Upon the accession of General Jackson to the Presiden- 
cy, among his first official acts was the recall of General Harrison. No public vessel was 
despatched to bring him home, but, through the kindness of a private individual, he was 
accommodated with a passage in a merchant vessel. During the voyage, it was his custom 
to sit on deck until a late hour of the night, wrapped in his cloak, watching the progress of 
the vessel, and giving his mind up to the meditations likely to be suggested by the scene 
and the hour. In this way he formed an attachment to the mate of the brig, who, in keep- 
ing his nightly watch, was his constant companion. The remainder of the story is told in 
the following extract from the New York Commercial Advertiser. 

GENERAL HARRISON' S LAST LETTER. 
" On Saturday , a hardy, weather-beaten, but very respectable looking seaman, presented 
himself to the Collector at the Custom House, and, inquiring for Mr. Curtis, said, ' Gene- 
ral Harrison told me to give this letter into your own hand. He told nie to give his kind 



16 

Then, again, we may cherish the hope that, in the love and 
admiration with which the people regarded him, in the honors 
they bestowed upon him, and in the grief with which they 

respects to Mr. Curtis, and said, Mr. Curtis was his friend, and would be my friend.' Mr. 
Curtis opened the letter, and found it to be, from its date, one of the last, if not the very 
last letter written by General Harrison. 

It bears date of the day when his illness commenced. The reader will see, from a peru- 
sal of it, that amidst all the cares and troubles of his high position, he was true to the 
humblest of his old friends. Tucker says, the General made him come to the dinner-table 
with the great folks, and when he hesitated, and intimated that he had better go below for 
his dinner, the General said, ' Tucker, you and I have been shipmates, and a long time 
together. You are an honest man ; come and eat your dinner with me, and come here 
again to-morrow morning and get your breakfast with me.' 

Tucker says, the General invited him to stay in Washington, and told him he would take 
care of him, but his wife and children being in New York, Tucker preferred to return. 
He says, General H. followed him into the grounds on the ea.st side of the White House, 
and then walked with him arm in arm ; that the General had no hat on, and when Tucker 
adverted to his liability to take cold, he waived the remark by snying he was already 
unwell. Having received the letter from the General, Tucker says he followed him to the 
door and shook him by the hand, saying, ' go to my friend Mr. Curtis, and after you have 
been to liim, do n't forget to write to me that you and your wife and children are happy 
again ' 

Tucker says, he had no money to come home by land, but he did not let the General 
know that, for he knew he would give it to him in a minute, and he did not wish lo take 
money from the good old man who had been so kind to him. And so Tucker went on 
board the schooner L. L. Slurgis, at Ale.Nandria, and worked his passage home to New 
York. When he came to the Custom House he had not been ashore thirty minutes, and 
having first heard the sad news of the death of his kind benefactor as he passed up the Old 
Slip Dock, the abundant tears that fell down his hardy cheek testified that his is no ungrate- 
ful heart. 

We are glad to hear that Mr. Curtis immediately appointed Mr. Tucker an Inspector of 
the Customs." 

Washington, 2Gth March, 1841. 

Dear Sir — The bearer hereof, Mr. Thomas Tucker, a veteran seaman, came with me 
from Carthagena, as the mate of the brig Moniida, in the year 1829. In an association of 
several weeks I imbibed a high opinion of his character,— so much so that (expressing a 
desire to leave the sea,) I invited him to come to North Bend and spend the remainder of 
his days with me. Subsequent misfortunes prevented his doing so, as he was desirous to 
bring some money with him to commence farming operations. His bad fortune still con- 
tinues, having been several times shipwrecked within a few years. He says that himself 
and family are now in such a situation that the humblest employment would be acceptable 
to him, and I write this to recommend him lo your favorable notice. I am persuaded that 
no one possesses, in a higher degree, the virtues of fidelity, honesty, and indefatigable in- 
dustry 5 and, I might add, of indomitable bravery, if that was a qualitj necessary for the 
kind of employment he seeksi 

Yours very truly, 

W. H. HARRISON. 

Edward Curtis, Es^., Collector, iSj-c. of New York. 



17 

mourn him, much has been done to give vahie and currency to 
the gentler virtues and the more amiable dispositions. Much 
of his life was passed among rough and violent men, in rough 
and violent scenes ; — but he was always gentle, mild and com- 
passionate. For this, he suffered at times momentary detrac- 
tion at the hands of coarse and hardened and wicked men ; but 
for this he finally received the rewards of an unrivalled popu- 
larity and of the noblest public honors. This amiable disposi- 
tion was manifested, in the most striking manner, even in the 
midst of the desperate scenes of battle. He stayed the furious 
hand of incensed retaliation. He charged his soldiers never to 
raise their swords against the fallen and helpless, and, in their 
warfare with the Indians, never to imitate them by inflicting 
cruelty or unkindness upon those who might fall into their 
hands. Here I cannot refrain from quoting the beautiful lan- 
guage in which he commended, in his public general orders, a 
detachment of his army which had scrupulously adhered to 
his injunctions of mercy, under circumstances of peculiar temp- 
tation to disregard them : — 

" It is with the sincerest pleasure that the General has heard 
that the most punctual obedience was paid to his orders, in not 
only saving all the women and children, but in sparing all the 
warriors who ceased to resist ; and that, even, when vigorously 
attacked by the enemy, the claims of mercy prevailed over 
every sense of their own danger, and this heroic band respected 
the lives of their prisoners. Let an account of mnrdered inno- 
cence be opened in the records of Heaven against our enemies 
alone.'''' 

In his general orders upon landing his army on the shores of 
Upper Canada, previous to the battle of the Thames, in which 
he conquered and captured an entire British army on their own 
soil, he stimulated his troops to eagerness and energy for the 
fight by reminding them of the inhuman cruelties which their 
unfortunate fellow-soldiers had not long before endured, at the 
hands of the enemy whom they were about to meet ; but, at 
the same time, he mingled with his exhortations to resolute 
zeal and bravery the most effective appeals to their mercy and 
humanity :— " Kentuckians ! Remember the river Raisin, but 
3 



18 

remember it only whilst victory is suspended. The revenge of 
a soldier cannot be gratified upon a fallen enemy." 

The memory of President Harrison is precious because it 
tends to exalt the peaceful virtues over those which have given 
its dazzling lustre to military glory. Although a military chief- 
tain himself, he ever sacredly regarded Citizen as a nobler title 
than Soldier. He vindicated and guarded the supremacy of 
law and order, and always ascribed a greater glory to civil 
than to military services. His admirable letter to Bolivar, and 
others of his public writings and speeches, enforce these senti- 
ments in a style of beauty, earnestness and efficacy never 
surpassed. 

It is unnecessary to dwell upon the benefit his countrymen 
are to derive from his religious character. Particularly during 
the last years of his life, when the prospect and the enjoyment 
of the highest earthly honors might have been expected to give 
another direction to his thoughts, his attention and his affections 
were strongly fixed upon heavenly things — upon the truths of 
religion, the word of God, the duties of piety, and a preparation 
for eternity. The pure, fervent, and devout professions and 
declarations he made of his Christian faith, and of his humble 
but earnest desire to serve his Saviour and his God, have sunk 
deep into the hearts of this people, and have produced an effect 
which no calculation can yet measure. It is this that will im- 
part to his fame a reality, depth, and efficacy in all coming 
time, and confer upon his name a glory, such as never can be 
transcended or eclipsed. 

Indeed, few more interesting as Avell as instructive lives are 
recorded than that of President Harrison. His example elo- 
quently pleads for many virtuous principles and encourages 
many noble sentiments and affections ; while, at the same time, 
his history is filled with the most romantic incidents, thus at- 
tracting attention to his example and surrounding it with a 
high poetic interest. It presents scenes of the strangest vicissi- 
tude, and alternates to the most distant extremes, illustrating, 
in a manner more striking perhaps than the biography of any 
other man. the uncertainty of earthly fortune, and the impossi- 
bility of discerning, witli mortal eyes, the events of the future. 

Twelve years ago he was returning to his native country, 



19 

exiled from her service. He was returning to poverty and ob- 
scurity. As he sat on the deck of that soUtary vessel, at the 
still midnight hour, in dreamy reverie, the past moved through 
his memory, from the hour of his first crossing the mountains 
through the whole period of the history of the Western country. 
What strange, eventful, and exciting scenes rose before him in 
the retrospect ! The boundless wilderness gradually but rap- 
idly, as by magic, changing into populous States ; frontier 
wars, massacres, and conflagrations ; bloody and fearful bat- 
tles ; the sharp crack of the Indian rifle ; the heavy thunder of 
British cannons ; the strife and fury of conflict ; the exulting 
shouts and joyous acclamations of victory : the plaudits of a 
rescued and triumphant people, and the exercise of an almost 
boundless power over vast regions ; — such were some of the 
elements of thought which the contemplation of the past brought 
into his mind. But how strangely was the future hidden from 
his view ! Trodden down by the administration of his coun- 
try, and, so far as it then appeared, forgotten by the people 
who had once honored and admired him, he was hastening 
to his farm on the banks of the Ohio, there, as he sup- 
posed, to spend the remainder of his days in laborious obscu- 
rity, unnoticed and unknown by his countrymen. His antici- 
pations did not look beyond the cultivation of his own acres 
by his own industry, and so humble were his prospects, that 
he proposed to share his future fortunes with the poor weather- 
beaten mariner who stood at the wheel, during those same 
night-watches, and who, it was agreed, should abandon the 
seas and be associated with him in agricultural labors. Such 
were the plans for the future in which his mind indulged. 
Little did he imagine what the future had in store for him ! 
Little did he think of the honors that were awaiting him ; of 
the slow but glorious rewards that were ripening for all his 
toils, and sacrifices, and services to his fellow-men and his 
country ! 

This is but one of the innumerable illustrations his career 
affords of the extremest vicissitudes of fortune. His life was a 
lengthened series of brilliant services rendered in high stations, 
interspersed with intervals of the most humble and apparently 
forgotten obscurity. These vicissitudes were strangely consum- 



20 

mated and brought to a most affecting and solemn conclusion, 
by the pageant of his fimeral, following in such immediate 
succession the pageant of his inauguration. 

But the instructive lessons of his character and fortunes can- 
not all be crowded within the limits of one discourse, and I 
must relinquish the theme. His reputation and history are the 
property of the nation, and will afford abundant materials of 
interest and value to the poetry and biography, the political 
annals and the historical literature, of the country. I have 
time to do no more in drawing forth its moral. 

He was happy in his life, for his soul was blessed by the 
constant presence of benevolent affections and an innocent and 
approving conscience, and his countrymen at last acknowl- 
edged and honored his merits, with one voice and with one 
heart. He was most happy in his death — more happy than all 
his predecessors — for he died in that lofty station where all 
eyes beheld him, and all hearts prayed for him ; and when he 
had gone, the honors paid to his office, combining with the 
sincere, unaffected and spontaneous tributes of affection, grati- 
tude and sorrow rendered to his personal character, have 
caused his name and example to be imprinted in the deepest • 
and most durable lines upon the memories, and to operate with 
the greatest possible effect upon the lives of the American people. 
The passage of our history which describes the honors paid to 
his name, will be eloquent and effectual in persuading men to 
the practice of his peculiar virtues. 

May such be the result of the services of commemoration and 
of serious contemplation in which the people of the United 
States are this day engaged ! And when they leave the houses 
of prayer in which they are now assembled, discharging the 
last office of a nation's mourning for an honored and lamented 
ruler, may they carry with them his spirit of gentleness, benev- 
olence, integrity, disinterestedness, patriotism and piety, and 
thus may the great design of God, in calling him into life, and 
conducting him through it, and taking him out of it, be fulfilled. 



APPENDIX. 



The following admirable hymn, composed by the Rev. James 
Flint, D. D. for the municipal commemoration of the Death of 
President Harrison, by the city of Salem, was repeated by the 
choir of the First Church on the day of the National Fast. 



Fallen is our country's laurelled Head, — 
Gone lo his home of glorious rest; — 

Living how Joved, how mourned when dead, 
A stricken nation's tears attest. 

His plumed helm and battle-shield, 
That screened the chieftain's lion heart 

In many a hard-fought, deadly field, 

Were vain wlien Dealli had aimed his dart. 

The civic wreath, afieclion wove, 
That late adorned his radiant brow, 

Which there to bind fond myriads strove, 
Lies withered with its wearer now. 

Lo, sorrowing crowds have met again, — 
Where late they met in joyous cheer, — 

To swell the woe-struck, weeping train 
That follows sad the warrior's bier. 

Solemn and slow the pomp moves on. 

And veteran cheeks are stained with grief ;- 

Virtue deplores her votary gone ; — 
Religion mourns the sainted chief. 

And " dust to dust" hath now been said, 
And closed the tomb, where, deaf to fame. 

The patriot's shrouded corse is laid. 
His spirit fled to whence it came. 

We own, O God, thy righteous sway 5 
Thou 'rt love, and all thou dost is just ; 

'Tis thine to give and take away, — 
Ours to submit, adore and trust. 



22 

President Harrison died April 4th, 1841. The usual Annual 
Fast in Massachusetts was on April 8th. The following notice 
of the event was then taken by the author of the foregoing 
Discourse : 

" An event has taken place which, regarded in connexion with 
the train of circumstances that preceded, the incidents accom- 
panying, and the consequences that may flow from it, is making 
an impression of unprecedented depth, and, it is to be hoped, of 
unprecedented durability upon the minds of this people, associ- 
ating with their political speculations and excitements, projects 
and operations, those serious and salutary religious considera- 
tions and sentiments which are too apt to be forgotten in the strug- 
gles of party. During the last year, this country has exhibited 
a spectacle of the most exciting interest. We have seen a devel- 
opment of popular feeling and power on a larger scale than has 
been witnessed before. A narrative of the forms under which 
this mighty movement displayed itself, as it advanced towards 
its crisis, would be a novel and instructive illustration of the so- 
cial principle and sentiment, as it acts through the institutions 
of this extended republic. All remember the processions, and 
gatherings, and vast conventions of the people, and the various 
innumerable indications of the rising tide of the popular will, 
till at last it swept over the whole country. A million and a 
quarter of voters lifted the selected object of their favor and con- 
fidence from the humble but honorable retirement of rural life, 
and bore him with a power that nothing could resist, and with 
acclamations that rang from the extremities of the land, to the 
highest official station in the world, which man, by his choice, 
can confer upon his fellow-man. Thousands upon thousands 
flocked to witness the imposing ceremonies by which a grateful 
and rejoicing nation invested with power its elected chief mag- 
istrate. He entered upon the discharge of the high duties to 
which he had been called : and the people were looking with the 
liveliest satisfaction and confidence to the development, under 
the auspicious influence of his uprightness and wisdom, of an 
administration which, they felt sure, would promote and perpet- 
uate the peace, prosperity and harmony of the country. The 
extraordinary energy of the eflTorts which produced this result. 



23 

and the magnitude of the triumph which the successful party 
found that they had achieved, may have led them, perhaps, to 
indulge in a greater degree of assurance than is consistent with 
the frailty of all human things. They felt strong in the strength 
which had accomplished the great revolution, they looked upon 
it as their own work, and it seemed to them to be placed beyond 
the reach of vicissitude or danger. It has pleased God to arouse 
them from this their delusion. He has reminded them that there 
is a power above them— that their wisest contrivances may in a 

moment be disconcerted, and their mightiest works undone. 

He has stretched out Kis arm, and the people feel, in their sor- 
row and disappointment, as they have never felt before, that 
there is no dependence to be placed in the power and glory of 
this world. ' The angel of death has mingled in the pageant,' 
and the voice of joy is changed into lamentation. 

Our statesmen and politicians experience, at this moment, a 
conviction of the fallacy and uncertainty of all human calcula- 
tions, arrangements and projects, and of the power of an over- 
ruling Providence to baffle and defeat them, which it will be of 
unspeakable benefit to themselves and to the country ever hence- 
forth to keep fresh in their minds. If they were habitually and 
permanently, as seriously and solemnly, affected as they now are 
by considerations of the uncertainty of life— of the power of the 
Almighty Ruler to disperse their most securely contrived plans 
with a breath — of their constant and entire dependence upon his 
favor, and of their liability, at any moment, to be called to ren- 
der in an account of their actions and designs at his bar, what 
a blessed thing would it be for them and for us ! 

Let us hope, then, that the deep and solemnized sensibility 
of the American people, under the unlooked-for and unprece- 
dented bereavement which has befallen them, may not speedily 
pass away. May it long endure, and render them and their 
rulers alive to their accountability, as dying men, to that God 
before whom they must all, they know not how soon, appear, 
to answer for the manner in which they here execute the 
trusts committed to them ! 

It may be expected of me to enter, at this time, more partic- 
ularly upon the consideration of that mysteriously ordered 



24 

event which has wrapped this land in mourning, but so deeply 
and truly do I feel the stroke, that I can no more give express- 
ion to those feelings, than I could while standing over the fresh 
grave of a near and dear private relative. Such I believe to be 
the manner in which the people in general are affected by the 
death of the good man whom the nation deplores. His history 
and qualities were such as to inspire affection and confidence, 
and to give to our grief at his removal, the same tender and 
poignant keenness with which we mourn the loss of a personal 
friend. 

Many years ago it was my fortune to dwell, for a short time, 
with him beneath the same roof, and my friends know the 
strength of language with which I have always been accus- 
tomed to express the conviction I then received of the peculiar 
benevolence and generosity of his disposition. It did not be- 
come me to take part in the political struggle with which of 
late years his name has been connected, and I allude to it now 
solely for the purpose of asserting that, Avhcn it had terminated 
in placing him in the chair of the chief magistracy of this 
nation, from the impression which personal observation of his 
character had made upon my mind, I knew well, what all now 
admit, and history will attest on her ineffaceable records, 
that he took up his great office with pure hands and an honest 
heart, and that as he approached it, and while he held it, his 
soul was filled with a single, fervent, devout, and constant de- 
sire and determination to discharge all its duties faithfully and 
conscientiously, with no other aim than the good of his coun- 
try and the approbation of his God. 

I might speak, from personal observation, of his fluent and 
manly eloquence, admirably adapted by a union of the requi- 
site intellectual, moral and physical properties, either to the 
senate, the camp, or the vast popular assemblage; I might 
from the same personal knowledge, speak of his general culti- 
vation of mind, by reading and reflection, which was remark- 
able in one of a mere military education and life; but I prefer 
to speak of him, not as a great, but as a good man— benevo- 
lent, honorable, just and true. To extol his talents, would be 
to introduce an uncongenial and inferior note in the sublime 



25 

dirge which now rises from a weeping nation. It is because 
the people of the United States believe him to have been a good 
man, that they mourn him, as no mere greatness can be 
mourned. It is most gratifying to find that this is the light in 
which his memory is cherished by them, and the depth and 
sincerity of their attachment and grief is one of the most strik- 
ing evidences history atfords of the superior value of moral 
worth, even in the eyes of the world. It shows that it is the 
testimony of humanity, as well as of Christianity, that the vir- 
tues of the heart are the noblest ornaments of the character, 
and that goodness is more glorious than greatness. 

Others will write the eulogy of this sincere, pure-hearted, 
noble-spirited hero, patriot, and Christian. I shall do no more 
on this occasion than to ask your attention to one fact which is 
to me most interesting and impressive, viewed in connexion 
with the circumstances, and I mention it now because it is 
an affecting illustration and enforcement of the doctrine of this 
discourse, namely, that sentiments of religious accountability 
and obligation ought always to be connected with the exercise 
of our political rights and powers. 

When, on the 4th of March last, General Harrison, standing 
on the steps of the Capitol, had pronounced his inaugural ad- 
dress to an assembly of more than twenty thousand of the peo- 
ple, and before he turned to the Chief Justice to receive the 
oath of office as President of the United States, after a solemn 
pause, he uttered these words, with an expression of the pro- 
foundest sincerity and earnestness in his voice and manner — 

" I deem the present occasion sufficiently important and sol- 
emn to justify me in expressing to my fellow-citizens a profound 
REVERENCE for the Christian Religion, and a thorough conviction 

THAT sound morals, RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, AND A JUST SENSE OF RELIG- 
IOUS RESPONSIBILITY, ARE ESSENTIALLY CONNECTED WITH ALL TRUE 

AND LASTING HAPPINESS ; and to that good Being who has blessed 
US by the gifts of civil and religious freedom, who watched over 
and prospered the labors of oar fathers, and has hitherto preserv- 
ed to us institutions far exceeding in excellence those of any 
other people, let us unite in fervently commending every inter- 
est of our beloved country in all future time." 
4 



26 

This declaration of Christian faith, proceeding, as it evident- 
ly did, from the depths of his soul, made in such a presence, at 
such a moment, will render his name forever dear and venerable 
to all who appreciate the value of a religious sense of account- 
ability to the prosperity and happiness of a people. What a 
solemn interest is imparted to these words, by the thought that 
in one short month the lips that uttered them were closed in 
death ! They were his last words to the people who loved and 
honored him. May the great principle they inculcate sink deep 
into the hearts of that people, and remain there as imperishable 
as his memory !" 



L£jn.'12 



